2008 University Award for Excellence in Community Outreach

Cyndie Shepard

Former Director, Phuture Phoenix Program

A conversation with a young boy who said there was no hope for his future motivated Cyndie Shepard to action. Following the conversation, the lifetime educator and wife of then UW-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard, co-founded the Phuture Phoenix Program. Since 2003, the program has inspired about 5,000 fifth-graders with campus tours and college mentors, and has led to roughly 10,000 hours of tutoring in middle schools per year, by about 300 UW-Green Bay student tutors.

The program notably serves as a model for the Wisconsin Covenant, a state program to inspire youth to higher education. Wisconsin’s First Lady Jessica Doyle calls Cyndie ‘a guiding light for leaders across the state looking to offer hope to students and the fulfillment of the goal of higher education.’